Leathek-ehashingr machine



NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHAS. WESTON, T. F. VESTON, AND J. WV. WESTON, OF SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS.

LEATHER-FINISHING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 13,605, dated September 25, 1855.

To @ZZ whom t may concern Be it known that we, CHARLES VEs'roN, T. F. VEs'roN, and JOHN lV. lVEsToN, all of Salem, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a cert-ain new and useful lIachine for Finishing Leather, and that the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to, forms a full and exact specification of the same, wherein we have set forth the nature and principles of our said invention, by which it may be distinguished from others of a similar class, together with such parts as we claim and desire to have secured to us by Letters Patent.

The figures of the accompanying plate of drawings represent our improvements.

Figure 1 is a central vertical section of the machine. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the same taken in the plane of the line A B, Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a detail view to be hereinafter referred to.

Our improved machine for finishing leather is similar in its general features to the machine used for polishing leather. In polishing leather, a smooth blunt tool, made of glass, or other hard substance, is attached to a swinging arm or pendulum and made to rub across the leather placed upon a hard bed. The effect aimed at in finishing heavy upper leather by hand, is to make the leather soft and pliable, the reverse of what would result from using the machine for polishing leather in finishing upper leather or wax leather. By the present invention leather is finished as well as by hand labor and'very much faster. In our machine a soft elastic bed is used composed of a layer of leather over one of rubber, it having been found, by practical experiments, that if rubber alone were used, it would soon wear out by the friction of the tool upon it, and thereby defeat the purpose arrived at. During a portion of the operation of finishing leather, called setting out it is in a wet state, and would become hard by the rubbing of a hard unyielding tool (like the tool used in polishing leather) upon it, in the same manner as sole leather becomes hard by being hammered while wet. To obviate this difficulty we use an elastic tool made of thin steel, bent at an angle with the body having rubber inserted between the steel, and stock of the tool. As the tool thus constructed is quite sharp it would be liable to make an indentation in the leather if it struck the same in traveling back over the bed and to prevent this a cord is attached at one end to the stock of the tool, and at the other end to the connecting rod by which motion is clommunicated to the arm that carries the too Having thus stated the general features of our machine and the points of distinction between it and the machine for polishing leather,'we shall now proceed to describe in detail its construction.

a a a in the drawing represents a table or platform on which the leather to be finished is placed.

Z) Z) is the bed made adjustable by the nuts c, c, &c., working on the screws cZ ci. A spiral spring e coiled around each of the screws as shown in Fig. 1, renders the bed elastic and permits it to yield a little. In the top of the bed b Z) is first secured a layer of rubber f, and over that one of leather g thereby forming a soft and elastic bed.

The finishing tool consists of a bent piece of steel Zz, inserted in the tool stock i. Botween the tool Z1, and the bottom of the tool stock, is placed a piece of rubber y'. The tool stock z' turns upon a pivot c in the arm or pendulum Z Z, which turns upon a center at m. The arm Z Z receives a traversing motion across the bed Z) b, describing an arc of a circle, to which arc the bed Z) b conforms; by means of a connecting rod n n, attached to a revolving wheel o.

The leather to be finished is placed upon the bed b Z) and the elastic tool n, as it rubs across the leather, sustained by the soft elastic bed, produces the same effect upon the leather as does the finishing process by hand, rendering the leather soft and pliable. As the tool acts upon the leather only in its force and motion, it is prevented from striking against the leather, while traveling back, which would produce marks or cuts in the same, by means of a cord 29, one end of which passes through the tool stock, while the other end is attached to the connecting rod n n. The tool stock will thus be held up during its retrograde movement sufficient to clear the leather upon the bed as shown in Fig. 3.

It will be seen that the tool will be brought to bear upon the bed, as soon as it commences its forward and rubbing motion, and lifted from the same, as soon as itcom- -mences its backward motion, by its own moleather, in combination With the soft elastic bed, and elastic finishing tool, the cord p,

secured to the tool stock for the purpose of 15 keeping the tool clear of the leather during its retrograde movement over the bed, as herein above set forth.

CHARLES WESTON. T. F. WESTON. JOHN W. WESTON. Witnesses:

EZRA LINCOLN, T. PAYER. 

